I’ve seen a lot of people mention always having a reception immediately following the ceremony or thinking it is weird to have a break.

I’m from Cleveland, Ohio and it is basically assumed that there will be at least a few hours between the ceremony and reception, with the only exception I’ve seen being for Friday weddings (which sometimes STILL had a few hours between).

We are having a ceremony at noon and the reception won’t start until 6. Our church wouldn’t let us have it later than 1 so we’d be cleared out by their 4 pm mass, so we figured noon would give people in town time to go home for awhile and out of towners can have time to check into their hotel (which is at the reception site). Most of my friends/family members have weddings around 1 or 2 and receptions around 6, but I’ve seen ceremonies as early as 11 with a 6 pm reception. Like I said, it is the norm around me to have a break.

So I’m just curious– what is the norm where you live and what are you doing?

What would you consider a break? I’m in Maryland, and I’ve never heard of a 6 hour break. My brother and friend just had pictures in between the reception and ceremony… maybe an hour or 90 minutes? There were hors d’oeuvres at my friend’s wedding, and there will be at mine… so… is that not a break? For all 3 of ours, the ceremony and reception was/will be at the same location.

We have the same date and I’m from Cleveland too! Where are you having everything? We are not having too long of a break. We are doing the pictures before the ceremony so we don’t feel rushed! Then everyone has a good 45 to 60 min to get to the reception which is only like 15 min away!

Usually in Australia if the ceremony is at a different place to the reception there will be a short break in between for people to travel between the venues, but nothing significant and there is usually a cocktail hour for guests to enjoy when theya rrive at the reception, most of the time the bridal party miss out on the cocktail hour while they’re off having photos done.

A friend is getting married this weekend and there is a 2.5 hour gap between the ceremony ending and the reception venue opening which is kind of awkward, not that there’s anything wrong with it if it’s the norm in your area but i’ve never experienced it at a wedding personally..

We are doing a first look so are having pretty much all our photos done beforehand, our reception venue is right across the road from the ceremony so we’ll all walk over together and be there for our cocktail hour. For the amount of money and planning that’s going into the day I don’t want to miss anything!

I’ve only been to three weddings in my area so I’m sure they’re not representative of the norm around here, but there was no break in between at them. In all three cases, the ceremony and reception were in the same room. At one of the weddings the bridal party and immediate family did go outside on the lawn to do pics but it took maybe 30 minutes tops and all us guests just hung out and snacked on cookies until they came back.

That being said, we are doing a break. Our ceremony and reception venues are about 5 minutes away from each other. We’re doing a receiving line at the chapel after the ceremony, and then the bridal party and immediate family will stay at the chapel for pics while the guests go to the reception site. And when we arrive at the reception site, there’s a small room off the main banquet room where the bride and groom can choose to spend a quiet moment together to bask in the glow of new marriage before heading out into the party. I fully intend to take advantage of that 🙂

I live near Strongsville so we are having it our church. Stoney Hill Church its in Medina and the reception is at the Belarusian in Strongsville. Only other thing I have done is the dj which is A Brides Dj!

@RedWine13: I live in Texas and went to a wedding that started at 2 and the reception wasn’t until 6. For my FI and I, the huge gap was very awkward. The reception venue was only about 10 minutes away from the church. Since we’ll have a large number of out of town guests, we’re doing the reception immediately following and it’s just a few blocks down the street from the church. All the people I’ve talked to about this have agreed that when they go to a wedding, they want to have constant wedding festivities. It might be a regional thing, though. And if you’re not having any out of towners, it might be more acceptable. I can see an hour or so break between the two, to allow for pictures for the wedding party, but that would usually entail a cocktail hour for your guests at your reception venue.